Casinos, cardrooms and other gaming establishments employ many card dealers. The dealers shuffle cards, deal the cards, take bets, and otherwise play the card game. Substantial amounts of the dealer's time is spent in just shuffling the decks of cards in preparation for the ensuing card hands. During the time the dealer is shuffling, the game table is inactive, and bets are not being placed. From the standpoint of the casino, it is desirable to minimize the time spent in preparing the card decks for additional play.
A number of prior art card deck shuffling machines have been invented. Most of the prior automatic shufflers have suffered from various problems. Many are relatively slow and do not help the basic problem encountered by the gaming establishment. Others are relatively complex and thus expensive to build and maintain.
Furthermore, with respect to prior art shufflers, the control panel that the dealer must operate to start, stop etc. the shuffler is located directly on the shuffler. Because of the orientation of many tables in casinos, cardrooms, etc., it is inefficient and burdensome for the dealer to have to turn and press the buttons on the shuffler. Also, the number of buttons and commands associated therewith on many prior art shufflers are limited.
Thus there remains a strong need for a controller for a shuffling machine that can be operated remote from the shuffling machine.